The Decline of Coal, and a Tale of Sister States

Idaho and Wyoming are sister states. Not only are they next-door neighbors in the rugged U.S. Mountain West, they share similar histories, culture, demographics, geography, climate, and much more. What they don’t have in common is a particular natural resource widely used for energy since the Industrial Revolution. Idaho doesn’t have much coal, but Wyoming has an abundance of it in the Powder River Basin. That this single difference could result in these two sister states going in opposite economic directions speaks volumes about the way Americans, and perhaps all of humanity, conduct their business and run their affairs.

Idaho’s population is booming, Wyoming is losing people at the fastest rate in the nation, and their respective GDP’s reflect this trend. It would be encouraging to think that the leaders of Idaho wisely diversified their economy, in contrast with the leaders of Wyoming, but that…